Ken Fulk Designs Opulent Lounges for New York Fashion Week

Ken Fulk always dreamed of being famous. “When I was a kid in rural Virginia,” he explains, “my parents would ask me where I wanted to live, and I’d always say ‘Manhattan!’” The experiential designer, now based in San Francisco, is known for eclectic spaces that evoke over-the-top opulence, which is exactly why IMG commissioned him to design lounges for the 2017 edition of New York Fashion Week (NYFW), where fame is on everyone’s mind.

Photography by Michael Weschler.

The three lounges at Skylight Clarkson Square reflect Fulk’s signature extravagance. Sitting areas feature sumptuous leather sofas accented by gilded side tables. The artwork, neatly arranged on colorful lacquered-wood walls, includes Fulk’s own collection of portraits. One lounge’s malachite mural depicts Michelangelo’s David in gold, while hand-painted zebras adorn the VIP lounge’s bar, appropriately called "Fancy as Fulk." “We want to make people feel glamorous and a wee bit famous when they enter the spaces,” Fulk says. “I always think at any moment, a troupe of dancers may enter from stage left.”

Photography by Michael Weschler.

Fulk’s installation also offers a dose of social commentary. “In an increasingly picture-perfect, Instagram-worthy world, everyone seems to be seeking their 15 minutes of fame, one filtered fragment at a time,” says Fulk, who was inspired by Andy Warhol. Fulk collaborated with Christie’s to emblazon an original Warhol illustration—the lounge’s pièce de résistance—on a hallway wall, which displays the late artist’s popular prophecy: “In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.”

Photography by Michael Weschler.Photography by Michael Weschler.Photography by Michael Weschler.Photography by Michael Weschler.